Joe's Reaction of the Week: Dolan's Trust, Igor's Knee, Fox's Whatever
The Rangers can’t afford to confuse optics for reality, and Dolan’s patience plus Shesterkin’s injury may finally remove the illusion.
This Joe's Reaction of the Week was supposed to be all about the perception of the New York Rangers following their decisive win over the Florida Panthers in the 2026 NHL Winter Classic. Specifically, about how they couldn't let winning on that national stage, in the spotlight, convince them in any way that this team is worth betting on for the playoffs and/or in the playoffs, regardless of what the owner might think:
James Dolan just walked out of the locker room. He looked pretty happy.
— Colin Stephenson (@ColinSNewsday) January 3, 2026
And then, said owner joined WFAN to do an interview, where a two-ish minute monologue about Chris Drury, Mike Sullivan, and the New York Rangers sort of blew up that idea.
Then as I was working on that story, Igor Shesterkin went down with an apparent leg/God-I-hope-it's-not-his-knee injury and is out for an unknown period of time as of this writing. For good measure, Adam Fox is back on the shelf, as well.
The good news is I can merge the two ideas into a column that covers what I wanted to say in the original column (stay with me now) and do it in a harmonious way that makes sense and gets my point across. I think.
Anyway, off we go. Buckle up, this one is a doozy.
